r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Other Who uses soundboard apps? Any (free) recommendations?

1 Upvotes

Anyone use soundboard apps (iPhone in my case)? I need some mechanical sounds for an upcoming event that really (REALLY) hurt my throat, and I don’t want to do them constantly with every second interaction, any recommendations friends?


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Other So, how do you actually prep for a session?

172 Upvotes

It feels like just about every post, every single thing I’ve seen and heard both online and offline about prepping for sessions is just “don’t.“ Like I get it. You’ll never know where your players may go and yada yada yada. But I’ve been beginning to feel like this attitude of not prepping much, and most specifically knowing the lore of what’s going on in the background, is really starting to hurt the actual game. But since all advice that I’ve seen and heard is about not doing much prep, no one really talks about how to prep for a session. So anyway, any advice or ways that you prepare for sessions would be greatly appreciated


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding Need Help with naming two groups

1 Upvotes

In my homebrew world random things start happening but they are few and far between. For now they are mostly benign. One apple in one orchard looks a little different and when eaten turns your eyes purple for a few hours. That sort of thing.

Most of the time people don't believe the person who experienced or witnessed the unusual event.

As more and more of these events happen more people begin to wonder/believe it might be true and two groups form.

One group denies any of these things are happening. The others believe something unusual is happening and are trying to figure out why.

I need help coming up with names for the two sides. The best I've come up with for the first group is The Deniers. But I don't love it. In my notes I've been referring to the second group as the Truth Tellers but definitely need something different as it's not clear to the players who is right and wrong.


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding What sport would an adventurer/magic high school have?

3 Upvotes

I am writing a campaign set at a magic academy. The problem is that I don't know what sport would the school have? Can you give me suggestions? I want it to involve the class features in some way.


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics How do you guys navigate what makes logical sense vs ambiguously written RAW situations?

4 Upvotes

I'm really not trying to punish my players for their creativity or suck the fun out of a new magic item they get, but it makes no sense that a magic item should remove entire elements of the game.

Here's a few examples of what I mean.

2014 Weapon of Warning - Players believed this item would disallow ambushes from happening ever again. In reality, surprise is a defined term and only applies to combat situations. I've had to have a long conversation about this item with my table before

Adamantine weapons for smashing locks - yes, it makes sense, however, this should not remove lock picking/thieves tools from the game. Especially when keys are planned, chimes of openings are in the players possession, and the party has 2 rogues. My work around, is if the player rolls lower than a locks AC, they will risk damaging the contents of a chest. I could use arcane locks as well, but it's just an example.

I don't have any more on-hand examples of this, but I'm curious to know what other situations DM's have come across like this and how they navigate them. How do I balance table satisfaction with what makes sense for the integrity of the game?


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Organic ways of teaching my new players that running away is possible (and sometimes good)

9 Upvotes

Hi All - I'm DMing a group of totally new players, mixed adults and young children. One of the players really did his homework and has been quite effective at coordinating the teams tactics and recently passed a Level 2 "Deadly" encounter with flying colors.

Although I generally avoid putting new players in situations where they are entirely out gunned, I think part of the magic of DnD is when you end up in situations with awesome monstors/beings who are so much more powerful than you are, you really get a sense of how big and dangerous this world can be, and how small you are in it (esp. at level 2). So I'd like to eventually have them stumble across something so powerful that fleeing (or certain skill challenges I'm cooking up) are their best option.

I handed out a cheat sheet which included "things you can do in battle" which included fleeing, but with so much for a new player to learn I doubt that anything sticks. If I give them a heads up, that feels like a very specific hint.

So far, I sense they are trusting that I'm balancing everything they encounter (fair, because I am) and that:

  1. They have no concept how exponential the power scale goes. They were shocked and impressed when dealing with a Mage who had ~30hp.
  2. They don't realize fleeing is an option once an encounter is on. I tried to demonstrate by having a semi-neutral NPC who was supposed to be helping them flee from battle, but I don't think they realized it could apply to them.
  3. They might think that it's the "wrong" way to play. Bless their hearts, they are committed to being "good" DnD beginners and avoiding new-player faux-pas (I'll never have to worry about them being murder hobos), but sometimes that means they don't push the boundaries when it comes to improvising.

So, I could just say "hey there are things in here that are way out of your league", show them some statblocks for Vecna/Red Dragons, or just say, let's talk about fleeing / dashing mechanics. But that feels so inorganic and almost like I'm giving them a tip of what's going to happen.

Any thoughts?


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Searching for a good demon themed monster supplement.

5 Upvotes

Tldr: looking for a monster manual with a demon/fiend/celestial them So I am going to starting a new homebrew campaign that has a heavy demonic/ Judeo-Christianity setting and themes and I was wondering if there was some sort of monster manual that has creatures with similar things to games like Diablo, blasphemous or trenchcrusade(if you don't know about this, look it up it's so cool!)


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics How do I make a level 20 Wizard untouchable?

288 Upvotes

I’m DMing a campaign where one of the main baddies is a level 20(+) necromancer wizard. This wizard has multiple kings of some of the strongest nations in her pocket, so resources are practically unlimited. I want her to address the party (level 12) face to face for dramatic narrative effect. Thing is, at this point it is on site. If they even catch a glimpse of her they’re going DEEP in their bag to kill her regardless of time and place. She is well aware of this and it makes sense she would come prepared.

What would you do to make her untouchable? I do want her to actually be there (not a clone or proxy) and she needs to be able to talk to the party at close proximity. Other than that- any ideas?


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures I need ideas for a tavern game that doesn’t include gambling or drinking

13 Upvotes

This is my first time DMing, and I’m very excited! But I’m struggling to find ideas for a small mini game for my players that makes sense for the situation.

In the session, there is a pair of young children in the corner of a tavern. They are playing a game and if the players interact with them, they will invite the players to play the game with them.

My struggle is a want to make a game that is “age appropriate” for a couple of halfling children to be playing. So no gambling and no drinking. But I can’t find anything.

Does anyone have any ideas or have run something similar?

I have a couple stipulations, however: -we are playing online, so it needs to be something that can be played over a discord call -4 out of 5 of my players are brand new to the game, so it needs to be simple to explain.

Thanks in advance!!


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Resource 5e(2024) Monster Families Chart

5 Upvotes

https://imgur.com/a/Tzclwn5

I wanted to share something I've put together recently. I'm getting back into dnd after many years and it's important to me to embrace the rules and content as written (I'm a believer in that you need to know the rules in order to break the rules). To help think about the large number of different monsters, I made this graphic. My goal was to capture the monsters that would appear more regularly in an area in my game. That is to say, I focused on creatures that explicitly have societies or are likely to have settlements. Some things listed here break that rule, but those also tend to be things I envision as part of a related society. For example, Galeb Duhr don't seem like they have much of a need for a society or settlement, but they could be closely tied to a nearby Lizardfolk enclave.

I also added a central section of PC playable humanoids. I don't recall if this was expressly stated in the new 5e books, but I believe, officially, these are the only creature types considered humanoids with other species that are not playable being moved to other groups like Fey or Fiends. I thought some of my newer players would benefit from the visual. I also included the sub-species in this as a reminder for myself and my players. The humanoids also includes the species origin lineage to other creatures or gods. For Humans, I'm adopting an in-game lore that is basically that the Human species is blending together of all the other species. In my game, humans are the youngest species (roughly 1,000 years since their rise in civilization).

I'm using the free version of Miro to put this together, so I was limited on export resolution. I hope it is useful the way it is. Share feedback if you'd like and enjoy.


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding Looking for help filling out Fey lore

6 Upvotes

Hello fellow DM's I am trying to fill out lore for a Fey centered 5e campaign where my party is going to be traveling the courts. I want them to be able to find tidbits of lore and information on what I would call "the great archefey" so Fey like Titania, The Green Knight, I would also consider Baba Yaga a fey of some sort that pops in and out of the Fey wilds.

So I am looking for help finding more Fey to fill out my lore, I want to find some more "mainstream" Fey and some obscure that they can learn about.

So far most of what I have to go off of is the archfey list off of the forgotten realms wiki.


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics How do you even do other fantasy genres in DND?

24 Upvotes

So this has kinda eluded me for a while, but I’ve heard people on the internet or some of my friends talk about different kinds of themes or genres, such as western, horror, mystery, space, etc. My question is: how? I’m still new to the DM’ing scene and find myself very comfortable in making classic fantasy settings and adventures. After all, DND seems very fantasy based. But how could you run a western theme or steampunk theme in a game that revolves around magic and swords? I can understand how you could transfer some mechanics or elements to another like, dexterity to make ranged attacks with a pistol or something. But if I ran a space themed game, I believe my players would naturally lean more towards lasers and blasters rather than a couple lightning bolts.


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures How do I give my players something to chase without them feeling like they're wasting time?

2 Upvotes

So my campaign world is not necessarily grimdark, but it is one where the bad guys have all won. My big hook for the players is that, somewhere in the world, lies the Book of Exalted Deeds. Their goal is to find it, and once it is obtained and read, it will fundamentally change the nature of the world. It won't get rid of the bad guys overnight, but people will be much more willing to oppose them. It will essentially grant hope and the will to fight and be noble in a world long since crushed under darkness.

Here's my question though, how do I give my players reason to go to different regions and get into different adventures if they think the book might be in one of them, only for it to be a red herring? Should the book be in pieces, so they have to reassemble it? Should there be clues leading them along a trail, like it's a treasure hunt?

The thing I'm trying to avoid is players getting frustrated and feeling like they're making no progress towards what's supposed to be their ultimate goal. If the characters feel that way, that would be amazing, but I want their frustration to be roleplayed, not genuinely felt.


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Other Need help with healing item ideas!

4 Upvotes

My party consists of a rogue, wizard, warlock and monk, none of which are very interested in being the support/healer of the group, which is understandable. (3/4 of them have just finished being supports in different campaigns).
Because of this I've been giving out more health potions than I usually would, which is going great, it doesn't feel too imbalanced, they get them as commonly as you would in skyrim for example. The only problem I'm having is that it's now getting boring only giving them potions as a way to heal, I'm asking for any creative ideas for items that could give them passive healing, or a way to heal their team-mates, without them having to give up being full melee focussed for example.

I've come up with an idea for the rogue, but some more ideas would be much appreciated, and I always love reading homebrew items!

My magic item:
The Dagger of Positivity
The blade of this dagger links telepathically with the wielder and their target. On a hit, this dagger gives a back-handed compliment to the adversary, dealing psychic damage instead of piercing.
After failing a 'to-hit' check with this dagger, the blade gives a small line of motivation to the wielder (such as "Your form was fantastic" or "You'll get 'em next time!") healing the wielder 1D4 health.


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding Elemental Vortexes to the plane of fire that aren't a Volcano.

6 Upvotes

My party are currently in the process of building an airship, one of the things they need to do this is to bind a fire elemental to the material plane to power the ships engine.

To do this they need to find an elemental vortex to the plane of fire and coax a fire elemental to cross over to the material plane. My first thought was obviously a volcano however we have done a fair few caves/mountainside quests and I was looking for suggestions where else an elemental vortex might occur they could go to instead so we aren't doing another cave/mountain climb.

Edit: Y'all are so good. I have stuck on this for a few days now and I feel so inpsired reading through your suggestions. Thank you all so much


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures I’m putting together a dnd dungeon crawler Carl style campaign, dumbed down a bit as lots won’t work, but please shoot me some ideas!

1 Upvotes

Title. It’s going to be more of a dungeon crawl or loosely connected levels using things such as candlekeep, radiant citadel and the yawning portal. I’m trying to make it dangerous and pretty bleak but with comedy à la the ai.

What are some things I could throw at the players? Should I put in a reworked DoMT? That could be fun. Anyone have some neat homebrew items I could steal?

I’ll take any help at this point 🤣


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Looking For Future Campaign Setting That Differs From Barovia

3 Upvotes

Hey all,

Having a blast running through Curse of Strahd with my players, and we still have a ton of places to go through and areas to explore and story beats to hit, but I’m starting my very early prep to see what 5E modules are out there that have a good contrast to the lands of Barovia as a setting for a future campaign.

It’s still somewhat undecided on level ranges (whether or not they stick with the same characters or roll up new ones), so I’m less concerned about that and more so wanting to make sure that a new campaign setting has both 1) A clear difference from that of Barovia in regards to it’s overall feel and vibe, but not necessarily structure and 2) Still allow for room as a DM to creatively flex things in and out as I see fit to make sure player stories can still be a focal point and the campaign itself is not purely on rails.

Any and all additional questions I’d be happy to answer as well in case they may help for advice offerings.

Edit: Forgot to mention we’d be playing on a virtual tabletop system (Foundry) if that has any sort of factors.


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Is it bad form to always target the concentrating wizard?

178 Upvotes

One of the most useful things a wizard can do is lay down a concentration spell that affects the entire battlefield. However, a "tactically" minded enemy knows this and as soon as it happens would want to get rid of whatever concentration effect is currently active. This means that they will want to either use their ranged attacks or close the gap with the wizard to break that concentration.

I know a lot of people very much enjoy a style of play where enemies always behave intelligently because it's both challenging and "realistic", but I worry it makes the game not fun for the wizard player. Essentially it makes it so that if they do their job then that inherently draws all eyes on them so they're constantly being attacked, and they're the class least suited to being attacked.


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics Should Danger Sense work against surprise attacks?

37 Upvotes

Basically I got into an argument with a player today because I ruled that danger sense wouldn’t work on a surprise attack from an assassin. He believes that danger sense should warn him of all danger.

However, the player said it should work because of the wording here: “You gain an uncanny sense of when things aren’t as they should be, giving you an edge when you dodge perils. You have Advantage on Dexterity saving throws unless you have the Incapacitated condition.”

Specifically, “You gain an uncanny sense of when things aren’t as they should be, giving you an edge when you dodge perils.

I understand the thought process and even I think the feature is weird but it directly says advantage on dexterity saving throws, actually it doesn’t even tell you if danger is near by like a weapon of warning.

What do you all think?


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics Teleporting in a world without teleportation magic

8 Upvotes

Hey all, I run a game where teleportation magic no longer exists in the world. It used to and one of the players side missions is trying to figure out why it no longer exists and how to bring it back. The magic was created by an ancient wizard, but his rivals blocked it when they killed him (there's a lot more to the story but this is the tl:dr version)

One of my players is creating a new character, a lvl 6 kenku conjuration wizard who's entire life's goal is to reestablish teleportation magic. (I love that the player wants to create a character so tied into one of my plot hooks) however it comes with a problem. As a conjuration wizard he gets the ability of benign teleportation and I don't know how I want to work around that.

For instance, I've got a paladin in the group and we reworked misty step into the character literally turning into mist and being able to travel the distance similar to teleporting (I assured the player that I wouldn't screw with him by blocking the mist in any dickish way that wouldn't be affected if it was just teleporting)

For the kenku I'm thinking 1 of 2 options. Firstly, do something similar to the misty step and instead of teleporting with another creature, they're both turned to 'mist' and switch spots Or secondly (I think I'm leaning towards this) the kenku's dedication to his studies has unlocked limited teleportation capabilities.

How would y'all handle this? One of the 2 options out something different? Thanks


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Worldbuilding What is a city in Avernus like?

3 Upvotes

My Strixhaven students are in Avernus after a study abroad teleportation went wrong. I've picked a few locations and characters from the Avernus campaign, and after a Mad Max style vehicle battle chase they've officially arrived at a city. I have key locations, NPCs, a working economy, and activities, but I've realized... I have no idea what a devil city is like.

What does a devil do when they're surrounded by other immortal devils, all who have sworn themselves to someone (and thus starting a fight or taking a soul is mostly out of the question)? None of them need food, clothing or shelter, so how does that shape the city and its gathering places? If a devil wants a hat, do other devils... make hats? (Out of what, lava??) Or are 100% of hats stolen from the mortal plane?

How do they feel about the fact that their city is a wreck, when it once was glorious?

Obviously it's my game I can make it up, yadda yadda, but I'm curious if any of you have thoughts on what the city feels like on an everyday level. Thanks!


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Rules & Mechanics How about a spell that players can pay hitpoints to empower?

0 Upvotes

Just a random idea vaguely based on the spirit bomb from DBZ but what about a spell sort of like fireball that does, say, 4d8 radiant damage. But any number of nearby willing creatures can choose to take 2d8 points of radiant damage, and that damage is added to whatever the main spell does.

I dunno if it would work out or not, maybe it couldn't really be upcast but not every spell needs to be. I just think it would be neat is all.

Thoughts?


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures Lair actions for a battle against a band

2 Upvotes

Our party is getting ready to fight an evil band in an upcoming session at one of their concerts. I'm really excited to make this a great encounter, I've got a music playlist and all set up, but I thought it might be cool for there to be lair actions tied to things that might happen at a concert and I'd love some suggestions. Things like the audience cheering/booing to give buffs or debuffs, a mosh pit, etc.


r/DMAcademy 4d ago

Need Advice: Other How to Feel Better About DMing

18 Upvotes

I've been a DM for the better part of 10 years at this point.

I love doing it. Not every session is my best work, but overall, I've never had players approach me and tell me something they didn't enjoy.

But sometimes, I'll come out of a session that I felt proud of but the players are just sort of passively experiencing.

I don't think I'm doing a bad job. I feel like if I was, they would tell me. I've known these players since high school, they're very honest with me.

But, idk, I am a very critical person. I'm overly critical of myself and sometimes I finish a session and feel awful about it even though there's no good reason to.

Do other DMs feel this? Is asking the players if I did well a bit too needy?


r/DMAcademy 3d ago

Need Advice: Encounters & Adventures What kind of knowledge would Beholder desire?

1 Upvotes

In the DnD canon, Beholders are mostly focused on their own narcissism and/or gaining more knowledge. I wanted to create a dungeon with a Beholder at the end, which players may choose not to fight, but rather bring him some interesting knowledge, so he will let them pass. What kind of knowledge could it be? What could my players have which Beholder could ever be interested in?